Students learning bluegrass music from legend Bobby Osborne in Kentucky program

In the Eastern Kentucky hometown of bluegrass music legend Bobby Osborne, students at the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music are learning how to pluck the mandolin and belt out high lead vocals from the bluegrass great.

The Hazard Community and Technical College program in Hyden, a small community in Leslie County, started in 2007 teaching students who range in age from teenagers to 85 how to play bluegrass instruments, record songs and the history behind the genre.

Hyden had established the annual Osborne Brothers Hometown Festival 14 years earlier.

School director Dean Osborne, who calls the Osborne Brothers his cousins, said having Bobby Osborne say “yes” as an instructor was an honor.

“In classical music, it would be like playing on the same bill as Mozart and Beethoven,” Dean Osborne said.

Bobby Osborne was skeptical about being an instructor. He said he never thought he could teach others. He learned bluegrass in a living room, not a classroom.

“I don’t know how to teach nobody,” Bobby recalled. “I am a player and a singer.”

Dean Osborne said Bobby Osborne, who is 89, never read a book about how to play bluegrass, but helped write most of it. Having Bobby Osborne as an instructor gave the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music immediate legitimacy, he said.

Bobby Osborn joins instructors Scott Napier, a Lost and Found band member, and Virgil Bowlin, a recording studio owner and engineer.

Student Tom Lynn learned about KSBTM from his mother, who followed Bobby Osborne’s music on Facebook. After visiting Hyden for the music festival, Lynn decided to move from Michigan to attend the program in January 2019.

Lynn was attracted to bluegrass music because it is so different from the mainstream songs he grew up with.

“Bluegrass was stuck in my head, because it’s different,” he said. “It’s real musicianship. The bluegrass players just blow my mind.”

Lynn’s goal is to be a studio engineer and studio musician.

The school offers recording instruction, focused on engineering, studio set up, microphone use and placement, mixing of recorded tracks and editing a final product. Students can use two state-of-the-art recording studios. The course is also offered entirely online, attracting international students to the school.

Student Sarah Baker-Coots grew up in neighboring Perry County listening to bluegrass with her family in the car. She always had a love for music and could easily pick up songs. Her younger brother, Cody Baker, attended KSBTM. Baker-Coots, a nurse in her late 30s with three kids, was soon signing up herself.

Baker-Coots has attended the program for more than two years, repeating classes to learn more.

She said the bluegrass school is a godsend for the area.

“Even a small town, like us, can have a huge thing in our backyard now,” Baker-Coots said. “It’s definitely been wonderful.”

She said she wants to be a recording artist and show her kids that you can go after your goals at any age.

Dean Osborne said Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music embodies the community college mantra by including everyone in the community.

He recalled meeting an 85-year-old who wanted to put music to some poems he wrote, but the man said he was too old. He has since written 80 songs and produced a song about his life and a bluegrass song at the school.

The school helps its 100 students achieve their music goals, whether it is to be a professional musician, have a third career as a songwriter or work in a recording studio, Dean Osborne said.

College president Jennifer Lindon said the school’s vision is to tie together the region’s culture and heritage while celebrating the arts.

“All of us in Eastern Kentucky who love this place, we’re always looking for another piece to the puzzle,” Dean Osborne said. “We’re always looking for something that will go with our heritage and our culture and help to bring people here and let them see what we have to offer.”